Blinken: ‘We Will Have American Diplomats Back in Ukraine Starting Next Week’
Blinken: 'We Will Have American Diplomats Back in Ukraine Starting Next Week'
(CNSNews.com) - Russia's unprovoked war in Ukraine has not ended, but U.S. diplomats are going back into the country.
That announcement follows Sunday's visit to Ukraine by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other officials in Kiev.
"In terms of the embassy, we will have American diplomats back in Ukraine starting next week," Blinken told a news conference on Monday, following their Sunday visit. Those diplomats will start out in the western city of Lviv, which is about 40 miles east of the border with Poland.
"They'll then start the process of looking at how we actually reopen the embassy itself in Kyiv," Blinken said. "I think that will take place over a couple of weeks would be my expectation. We're doing it deliberately. We're doing it carefully. We're doing with the security of our personnel first and foremost in mind. But we're doing it."
Blinken also announced that President Biden will nominate a new ambassador to Ukraine, namely, Bridget Brink, who currently serves as U.S. ambassador to Slovakia. Blinken said Brink is "deeply experienced in the region" and "will be a very strong representative for the United States in Ukraine."
At the same news conference in Poland, Blinken said the leaders discussed where the war "goes from here."
"With the success that Ukraine has had, it's also true that Russia continues to try to brutalize parts of the country. And the death and destruction that we continue to see is horrific. But Ukrainians are standing up. They're standing strong, and they're doing that with the support that we have coordinated from literally around the world.
"The strategy that we've put in place -- massive support for Ukraine. massive pressure against Russia. solidarity with more than 30 countries engaged in these efforts is having real results. And we're seeing that when it comes to Russia's war aims, Russia is failing, Ukraine is succeeding.
"Russia has sought as its principle aim to take away its sovereignty, to take away its independence. That has failed. It sought to assert the power of its military, its economy. We of course are seeing just the opposite. A military that is dramatically underperforming, an economy as a result of sanctions, as a result of a mass exodus from Russia that is in shambles.
"And it sought to divide the West and NATO. Of course, we're seeing the exact opposite. An alliance more divided than I've ever seen it, and indeed, new countries considering applying for membership. The bottom line is this:
"We don't know how the rest of this war will unfold, but we do know that a sovereign independent Ukraine will be around a lot longer than Vladimir Putin's on the scene. And our support for Ukraine going forward will continue. It will continue until we see final success."
Blinken said he spoke with U.N. Secretary General António Guterres on Friday, "and he is heading to Moscow early this week.
"And our expectation is that he is going to carry a very strong and clear message to Vladimir Putin, which is the need to end this war now; the need for a ceasefire; the need for humanitarian corridors, for aid to get in, for people to be able to get out.
"The need for Russia to stop its brutalization of Ukraine. It's a clear, direct message that he should be carrying on behalf of virtually the entire international community."
Blinken said he and Secretary Austin traveled to Kiev by train from southwestern Poland and went straight into the meeting with Zelenskyy, so they didn't mingle with ordinary Ukrainians and "didn't see a lot except looking out the train windows on our way in," he said:
"We spent about three hours with President Zelenskyy with his senior team. That was the entire focus of our visit. We wanted to focus on the work that needed to be done in looking at the game plan that we have, how we're moving forward across all of these different lines of effort. That was the entire focus.
"There wasn't much of an opportunity to talk to average Ukrainians. We certainly saw people on the streets in Kyiv, evidence of the fact that the battle for Kyiv was won. And there is what looks from the surface at least to be a normal life in Kyiv. But that's in stark contrast to what's going on in other parts of Ukraine in the south and the east where the Russian brutality is doing horrific things to people every single day."
Blinken said Russia has "already failed" in its war aims "and Ukraine has already succeeded because the principle aim that President Putin brought to this, in his own words, was to fully subsume Ukraine back into Russia, to take away its sovereignty and Independence. And that has not happened, and clearly will not happen.
"Where the contours of the war goes from here, how much death and destruction continues, obviously that's of deep concern. We want to do everything we can to help the Ukrainians bring this to an end on the best possible terms as quickly as possible," Blinken said.
"Much of the work that we're doing is enabling them to strengthen their hand both on the battlefield right now, but also, eventually at a negotiation, if there is one."
Post a Comment